Dreadful treatment by manager

[magictorch1976]

Hi All

I would welcome any advice that could be offered please. I will try and keep it brief (!)

I am a facilities manager working for an office service outsourcing company. We have several contracts in the UK but those in what we deem "the Southern Region" are very spread out. Naturally, team interaction in this situation is difficult.

About 2 months ago, the Operations Director suggested a weekend away camping. Seemed like an excellent idea. I was not on the conference call but I was tasked with doing the PR for it all. During my construction of the first newsletter, it transpired that the campsite chosen was on the south coast of England, hardly centralised at all but it was too late really to wreck all the plans and pipe up and my team and I thought we could cover it between us anyway.

Many hours were spent on the PR work, usually at home till 11:00/11:30 at night and me offering to stay up till midnight whilst the Ops director checked it over on her email and text me her changes. I'm always happy to help and not a problem - I am not a jobs worth and I am a manager so I think I should muck in. I put a lot of hard work in to make sure I pleased my manager and the Ops director, (who are married to each other.....) and I got fab feedback, which I was pleased with.

A couple of weeks ago, the husband of one of my staff, who was going to drive us 160 miles there and back took severely ill and ended up in hospital having emergency operations. Luckily, he appears to be on the mend now but this unforeseen situation stuffed up the travel plans. When I looked at train fares this week, my shock at the £100 each fare was obvious. Several of my team then backed out, stating that they could, quite rightly, not afford it and neither could I. Incidentally, the company contributed £15 per head to this event, which paid for not a lot as you can imagine. All other costs were to be met by employees.

I looked into car hire and my boss said he would cover the expense of hiring one and the petrol by me putting in an expenses claim. I am the only one that drives or is old enough to hire a car in my team. Very nice of him. I went home that night and tore my house apart for my driving licence, which it transpired eventually had been lost by the DVLA when I sent it back to them for an address change. I don't own a car so I hadn't twigged on this previously.

Sorry this isn't actually brief is it ?!

Friday was spent racking brains, speaking to friends, trying desperately to get a car from somewhere but at 6pm, we all conceded defeat and I sent the following to all my colleagues who were going, knowing that some of them would pick it up on their blackberry's. I think the email is informative and explains that we had tried everything possible, rather than just being rude and saying "sorry, can't come."

Dear All

It is with much regret and frustration that the X Crew have to bow out of the summer event. This is due to a number of reasons, mainly train travel costs of £104 return. I have attempted to book group travel but in order to discount the cost, you need to have 10 or more people. We have looked into car hire yesterday and this would have been much more cost effective but unfortunately, after tearing my house apart for my driving licence, and speaking to the DVLA numerous times in the last 24 hours, it transpires that after moving house, they have lost it "during processing" when I sent it to them to change my address and as I don't own a car, it never crossed my mind that I had not had it back. X and I are the only one's that drive and she is not old enough to hire a car. I cannot hire one without presenting a driving licence and we do not have a pool car at the X office anymore that I could borrow. I have also tried our travel booking service with X and they can't offer any other advance purchase tickets due to it being so late in the day. I have been racking my brains completely but have had to concede defeat finally, at 18:21.


We have truly run out of options but it was not for want of trying and I am extremely disappointed that we cannot be there to show you how to party (!), as are the team. I also have a member of staff off sick and one who's husband is severely ill in hospital, (the only one that has access to another vehicle and who had previously offered to transport some of us,) and obviously, it would not be practical for them to attend given the circumstances. Really sorry to let you all down but none of us are really in a financial position to spend £104 on a train fare, plus the additional expenses - and the government wants us to travel by train ?! I honestly did not think it would be that expensive and we should have maybe looked into it sooner but it's not something you think would be that expensive.

Have also tried to phone X (my manager) on the way home but my battery ran out and I have left the charger at the office so won't pick it up till tomorrow unfortunately.

Wishing you a truly excellent weekend, we will look forward to seeing the photo's and hearing about the raucous behaviour.


When I logged onto my email on Saturday afternoon, I had the following 3 emails. All of them sent not from my manager's Blackberry but from a colleague's Blackberry, all of which had been sent Friday evening, the first night of the event:

Email 1:

Your are sacked

Email 2:

Last one is from me aka (my manager's name)

Email 3:

I used to watch Jackanory but this tops any story I have heard. Really dissapointed how can we expect staff to buy into this when managers cop out at the last minute when there was loads of time to sort this out

signed (my manager's name again.)

I am really really REALLY annoyed that he has called my integrity into question, that he doesn't have the common sense to see I tried everything, that it's their fault for picking a lousy location. I am also really angry that he chose to email such comments from someone else's email account and that I understand he was pi**ed on booze when he did so. Also, how dare he say I am copping out ?! My team all agreed that they could not afford it either and if they could and I could not, they would have gone anyway ! Also, would I have put so much hard work and effort into the PR if I had no intention of going ? I don't need the extra work !

To top it all, the Ops director, who he reports to and is married to, (nothing wrong with that but I can't exactly go to "his manager" with a complaint can I ?) emailed me this today and cc:d him in:

Have to say it was a huge disappointment to hear that travel hadn't been organised in advance. Difficult to understand how that might have happened. However, your saving grace, though, is the work you'd done on the flyers. Hey ho.

For a 31 year old bloke that works his backside off for the company and client, does loads of extra's in his spare time and has a horrendous workload in his day job, I feel like I am being treated like a school kid who has had a fight in the playground. I do not appreciate my manager's tone or that he dares to email me a whinge like that, especially as the person who was going to take us is in the ICU in the local hospital. I am disgusted that I get "you're sacked" response. if that would have been me, I would have said, "ok guys, no worries, obviously you have tried everything, better luck next time." It's OK for him on his mega salary and no money worries like the rest of us. I can barely make ends meet every month !

Really sorry to rant, it just flows when you are typing. I am sure I have a valid grievance here and I guess I am looking at some advice how to handle it. If I had emailed my staff comments like that, especially from someone else's email, I would be hauled over the coals for it. Surely that's gross misconduct under "inappropriate use of company IT equipment." ? Apparently, the actual owner of the Blackberry went mental at him !!!

Thanks for reading/falling asleep. I really would be happy to hear your thoughts. Initially, I am thinking of going to the HR director about it. I get on well with her and she is really fair in this type of situation. I think she will go mad when she finds out. The only problem with grievances, it totally destroys your relationship with the manager. Mind you, he's destroyed the relationship now LOL.

Thanks all.

[tiglet]

I would firstly ask for a private chat with your manager.

He may well be be very shameful (as you said, he was ****ed) and he may apologise.

If he doesn't, I would speak to HR and raise a grievance.

This was not work, it was an out of hours get together and if they wanted to ensure this happened, they should have given you a budget.

[Conniff]

I assume you are going to turn up for work as usual in the morning as a text like that is not 'notice'.

The air may have cleared a bit over the weekend and he will not feel the same.
If he does, then you are entitled to notice, worked or not, and full pay for that notice.

As above, raise a greivance as this has nothing to do with work.

If all does get sorted, I would look for a position with another company anyway as you now know the 'real' boss, and can then give them notice of your leaving.

[magictorch1976]

Tiglet/Coniff. Thanks very much for your advice. I will turn up for work. My boss is on a course this week. Luckily, he roves between sites so I only have to see him once a week.

I am doing 3 projects for him at the moment, as a favour. They are not directly related to my job. Can I tell him where to stick them and say I will be sticking to my job description from now on. I would hate to do that because it's not me but cross me once and I might forgive, cross me twice and you're rubbed out. I give a lot at work and care about my staff and my client. It really hurts when I am treated like this.

[colgate01]

Hi there,
I am assuming that your manager was not serious when he sent this email to you?
If you have a formal HR department, suggest raising a grievance as Tiglet says however my only concern would be possible reprisals. If your manager is married to the Ops Director, I am not sure you would get very far with the complaint and if your manager is so immature to send these emails in the first place, he probably wouldn't be above trying to get back at you in some way. Do you want to stay with this company?

[magictorch1976]

Colgate01 - I have thought about that and my immediate goal now IS to leave their employment. I have exam results coming through this week which, if I pass, will open up wider career goals to me. My thoughts were that if he does try and get back at me, I will just keep going to HR.

I don't think he was serious about "you're sacked." He can't do that anyway just like that. It was the total "im really annoyed with you and you are going to know about it" attitude that got me, when I tried really hard to try and get us there. No consideration for the fact that we had to travel all that way, costing a lot of money and there was no caring there at all. He's on a huge salary and his wife will be as well. There is no consideration for the people on the floor that work just as hard, if not harder and that's all the thanks I get - you're sacked. Well mate, YOU'RE going into a grievance meeting. I would love to email him that back.......i really would, but I know I can't ! But boy it would feel good !!!!

Oh well, you know what they say. People leave managers, not company's....

[magictorch1976]

Just for the record, the firm's attrition rate stands at 36%. It was 50% !!

[Ell-enn]

Originally Posted by Conniff

The air may have cleared a bit over the weekend and he will not feel the same.
If he does, then you are entitled to notice, worked or not, and full pay for that notice.

....and of course a claim for unfair dismissal !

I hope you have printed off the emails you received... you might need them.

I sincerely hope your boss was joking and can make amends for this lack of judgement. By all means discuss it with your HR manager, just so it's on file. I imagine you will see some very quick "backtracking" from your manager once HR are involved. I can understand your reluctance in involving HR for the sake of your relationship with the manager - but did he consider your relationship when he sent that upsetting email?

If the company wanted you and your team to travel any distance to this organised event, it should have been their responsibility to arrange a mini bus or other form of transport. It should not have been left to you to accommodate everyone's personal travel budget.

Please let us know what happens tomorrow.

Kind Regards

Ell-enn

[magictorch1976]

Thanking you Ell-enn and everyone else that has taken the time and trouble this evening to help me out. I am pleased and more confident now that I am "in the right" so to speak and I will be using a few choice quotes from you all tomorrow LOL. Ell-enn, "not my responsibility to sort out everyone's personal travel budget......." love it !!

[tiglet]

As I said, if your company wanted everyone to get there, they should have given you a budget.

ps It's not a field marketing company, is it?

[magictorch1976]

Hi tiglet, no, it's legal services outsourcing.

[Ell-enn]

:o please tell me they don't provide Employment Law services

[Sidewinder]

Originally Posted by Ell-enn

:o please tell me they don't provide Employment Law services

Snigger

If it's any consolation, most of the south coast has been subjected to storm force winds and lashing rain for much of the weekend. Delightful camping weather

[magictorch1976]

LOL @ Sidewinder

Just to keep you updated. Have put my complaint into HR Director. No response as of yet.

Manager called yesterday. Nothing was said, about any of it. He just wittered on about other things. I was like "yup, nope, yup, yup, no don't agree with that procedure change, nope yup. OK bye." I wonder how long it will take to click I am not happy and when he asks the question, I will tell him exactly why !!